Our Major Projects

Contents

Page Content

The Council has projects signalled for future years which are outlined below.

Current Projects

Civic Administration Building and Ashburton Library

One of the key drivers for this project is to ensure our buildings meet the required strengthening of the Dangerous Earthquake Prone and Sanitary Buildings Policy. Council considers a higher level of strengthening is warranted, to ensure the safety of our residents and visitors.

In addition to this, the Council Chambers are our Civil Defence Headquarters for the district, as well as the location where we would co-ordinate a response from. Council wants to ensure it has an appropriate venue and believes it needs access to a purpose built emergency response centre built to Importance Level Four. This means its seismic capability is rated at level four and it can remain operational after a large earthquake.

Recently and more urgent is catering for a growing population, increasingly complex work programmes and a broader range of core services has resulted in additional staff being needed to properly service our community.

The current Council office building is too small for current and future requirements and the continued pressure on staff accommodation has seen three departments of Council move out of the main administration building.

Part of being able to provide great service to residents requires a building that works well and promotes efficient use of time and space. This is about improving how we do business with residents of our district.

This project will consider what the most efficient and best use is for the former County Council building and how to deal with the earthquake-damaged Ashburton Library.

Council has budgeted approximately $16 million for the project over the first three years of the plan with $900,000 in 2015/16 to undertake a review of options and begin progressing the best option. This is a big project with a number of options.

Opus Architecture were engaged to undertake a Feasibility Study for Ashburton District Council’s Administration and Library Facilities.​ The second round of this public consultation closed Monday 19 September 2016.

Ashburton Second Urban Bridge

There are currently a number of issues associated with the current bridge across the Ashburton River, which connects the Ashburton and Tinwald urban areas. These include the reliance on one structure and capacity – especially in regards to traffic flows onto State Highway 1- at peak times.

For many years, the Council and New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) have been aware of safety issues for traffic accessing, crossing and travelling along State Highway 1 through Tinwald to and from the Ashburton Urban Area.

In 2006, Council and NZTA commissioned a Transportation Study Report on current and future issues within the Ashburton urban area. Council evaluated options to reduce current and future congestion on State Highway 1 resulting in the proposal for a second urban road bridge across the Ashburton River which is considered the most effective way to reduce congestion on the state highway bridge and provide alternative access.

Although the physical construction of the bridge and new road corridor is not expected to start until 2025/26, there are still a number of project stages to be worked through. This includes obtaining resource consents, developing detailed designs and preparation and tendering of construction contracts.

A Notice of Requirement (NOR) for land designation was confirmed by Council on 22 May 2014. Land designation is a statutory process to protect the bridge location and associate road corridor on both sides of the river. Council has begun purchasing properties which sit within the area that has been designated for the new route. Discussions will continue with the remaining directly affected landowners.

The overall cost of the bridge is budgeted at $30 million subject to NZTA joint funding.

Future Projects

The following future projects were budgeted and/or included in the Long Term Plan 2015-25.

Ashburton District Stockwater Network

Under the proposed Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan, there is a need to reduce stockwater sourced from the Ashburton River system by 2023. Council is considering options, costs and implications for potentially closing the stockwater race schemes in Ashburton District, in favour of alternative supply means.

Council considers it has an obligation to provide stockwater (or advice on alternative options) to properties due to the historic nature of the service.

Council proposed to continue to work with the commercial irrigation providers to extend the network where practicable and will undertake a project to service the remaining properties though rural water supply schemes or individual bores.

There would be no impact on general rates. The extension of the piped irrigation network is likely to be undertaken by irrigation providers, with Council providing water rights in exchange. The ongoing maintenance will be funded on a user pays basis through those schemes.

The additional rural water supply schemes and individual bores could be loan funded and repaid through targeted rates on the benefiting properties or other funding sources. Council has budgeted $2 million to investigate and progress the provision of stockwater to these properties.

Wastewater Scheme Upgrades

Capacity issues with the Tinwald trunk main and the Ashburton relief sewer were identified in 2008.

The Ashburton relief sewer is a trunk sewer main running from Creek Road (at Saunders Road) to the end of Trevors Road, a total length of 4,920m.

The Ashburton relief sewer will be fully upgraded in 2016 at a cost of $3.7 million (after inflation adjustment).

There will be an additional relief sewer built from Grove Street in Tinwald. The expected cost will be $720,000 (after inflation adjustment).

These wastewater scheme improvements will improve the service provided to properties. The Ashburton relief sewer will also cater for future flows from the Ashburton Business Estate and the proposed new residential zones around the south-east of Ashburton.

North East Ashburton Water Reticulation

Properties in the rural-residential area to the north-east of Ashburton area currently source drinking water independently from wells on each property. The shallow groundwater quality in the area is sometimes not of a high standard.

Council has extended the Ashburton water scheme network to service the Ashburton Business Estate. The scheme is proposed to be extended further to provide reticulated water to the properties between the town boundary and the Business Estate in 2019/20.

The design and consultation is scheduled for 2018/19. The project is budgeted at $3.8 million (after inflation adjustment).